Category Archives: D.I.Y.

Let me introduce you to our furry family members. Gidget pictured below is a Black Shepard mix and a “daddy’s girl.”

Blanca pictures below is our mystery prize since Juice saved her about a decade ago after being abandoned. She is most definitely a “Momma’s girl!”

A little over a week ago our two escape artists Shawshanked their way out of our backyard while we were away from home. Which lead me to briefly question why they would ever want to leave our little piece of paradise? Seriously, they live with two full-time “crumb monsters” a.k.a. my hubby and toddler, who leave a trail of delicious crumbs wherever they go. They have a big yard to try to destroy on the daily, dog beds at every turn. But I digress. Luckily our neighbor saw them running the streets, lured them back into our backyard and secured our gate.
So I added “do something nice for your neighbor” to my to-do list.

(On a side note, If a scowl could kill!…Oliver inherited this exact scowl from me. In his defense it was a really bright day.)

Then our friend Janell helped us out with our dogs on our last day of vacation and I again pondered what to do to say thank you.

I thought about baking human treats for both, but since I’m not familiar with my neighbors food preferences, the last thing I wanted to do was show up at her door with a dozen cookies only to find out she is diabetic or has a gluten allergy. That is when it became obvious that I need to make doggie treats! It was a perfect solution since they both have dogs, and while my own dogs haven’t exactly written up terms for surrender like better food, I figured a few yummy pupcakes might just keep them from trying to escape. In the words of Michael Scott, it’s a WIN, WIN, WIN scenario.

I found this great recipe on The Happy Foodie by Martha Stewart for Peanut Butter and Banana dog cupcakes but I decided to improve it immensely with one simple addition; bacon. Your pups will thank you. If you would prefer to weigh out your flour and oats into grams you can use the recipe above but I doubled the batch and converted the recipe to the U.S. Cups.

In honor of my birthday week I though I’d share my 35th birthday party inspiration; a Tropical Flamingo party.

I have been obsessed with flamingos for almost a decade, it all started on a shooting party in an Arizona dessert. My stepmom Sheri had packed up a box of potential targets including a glorious pink lawn flamingo. But as soon as I saw it, I knew I had to save it. I smuggled him out of harms way and stashed “Felipe” in my suitcase. Felipe the flamingo become my beloved mascot, I even named my apartment “the Flamingo.”
In 2008, Felipe was kidnapped and held for ransom. I unfortunately never saw him again. But his memory lives on in my heart.

Here is what you need to throw a fabulous tropical Flamingo party.

Decor

Start with a whole flock of flamingos. But not just any flamingos, go with the original Don Featherstone flamingos, they have the best details.

I have loved Shirley Temples since I was a little girl but since this is my 35th birthday, not my 5th, I decided to “adult” it up for my party by serving a Dirty Shirley. Here is a great recipe from The Solstice Table.

For an appetizer try this tropical bruschetta.
For the main course I will be serving Kahlua pork, coconut rice, and Hawaiian mac salad.
For Dessert try coconut cream pie shooters or a gorgeous coconut cake like this one.

In honor of my 3rd wedding anniversary, I’m celebrating with a whole week of wedding posts. Im kicking it off with a photo tour of my vintage carnival theme and giving my advice on how to enjoy your wedding day.

The benefit of being a bridesmaid a few times before actually getting married myself was that I saw first hand just how stressful a wedding can be and how often the bride doesn’t get to enjoy her day. I really wanted to enjoy my wedding so I came up with a game plan to combat what seemed inevitable.

First, I made a list of the most important priorities that I wanted from my wedding day, for me it was

1. To marry Juice…the whole point of the day right?!

2. I wanted to have fun

3. I wanted my guest to have fun

I kept this list in mind the entire wedding planning process and referred back to it when making budget decisions or dealing with a problem.
The other problem I saw with other brides was that they had too many things to do to really just relax. Since I love to plan parties and usually keep control of the reins the entire time, my solution to this one was really tough. But I hired a “Day of Coordinator” anyway.

For me this was by far the best money ever spent! I got to do all the fun details building up to the wedding and then Leslie Price and Ashley Wilson took care of vendor coordination so I wasn’t bombarded with calls from the florist, baker, chairs, tables, and tent deliveries, the Photo Booth set up, the caterer, and overseeing the setup/decorating of our wedding site. They nailed it. They also took care of a few details I didn’t have time for; they made adorable little activity kits for the children at our wedding, picked up the wedding cake knife that I had totally spaced, and popped popcorn for our send off. They even boxed up a few pieces of cake for Juice and I to enjoy later.

I absolutely loved my wedding day even though it was far from perfect. It rained and poured all morning, with the weather reports showing a 90% chance of rain during the ceremony for most of the day and the generator powering our music cut out just as the flash mob portion of our wedding dance started. But I just held on to my list and knew that rain or shine, music or not, I was going to marry my love, dance, and have fun.

Here are some of my favorite details from my vintage carnival themed wedding:

My life is filled with messy. Two dogs, a toddler, a husband with a penchant for crumbs and a little chaos. Each night as a part of our bed time routine, Juice and I get on my hands and knees and “help” our O.J. pick up a chaotic slurry of Legos, blocks, toys, books, and stuffed animals. I honestly think that my child’s favorite game is making a mess. After all “mess” was his 3rd word, his 2nd word was hummus. For his 1st attempt at sentence structure he strung them together and said many times with delight “hummus mess” as he painted the kitchen table and himself.

It’s hard to justify making things look beautiful with his constant assault on tidiness . And yet I keep at, if only for a handful of brief moments here and there where every Lego, book, and shoe is tucked neatly away, where the dishes are done, and there is no heaping pile of laundry there to taunt me. I prop my feet up, look around my beautiful little home and savor the bright, cheerful bits that delight me.

I love a good styled coffee table, they usually start with some gorgeous, architecturally interesting table, add in a mirrored tray or a basket, and then strategically arrange amazing books, flowers or a plant and undoubtedly some sharp, heavy knick-knack to tie it all together. All of which sound like a trip to the Emergency room just waiting to happen, that or an expensive book in a pile of shreds.

So here is my solution, a coffee table styling that most likely won’t make it in any design magazine spreads but is free of sharp edges, easy to clean, a great place to put your feet up in those rare moments of peace, and makes your living room look put together all while including your child.

I am all about using what I have and so our once bedroom ottoman became the living room coffee table. For awhile I thought about covering it with some trendy upholstery fabric but after countless leaky “sippy cup” incidents I decided that this bland, microfiber ottoman was just right as it, which is EASY TO CLEAN! I use books that are specifically for my little one but also match my color scheme (just don’t look too closely at these very loved books), a fake plant that has been put away a time or two when I just couldn’t bare another “teachable moment” where I redirect him to a book or my secret weapon, a wooden puzzle. Luckily for the most part he now ignores the plant.

I hope I’ve given you an idea that will make your living room decor a little less of a battle and still makes your home feel beautiful. For #1 how cute would it be to put two of these floral ottomans side by side. #3 I love the idea of picking up a few old books at a thrift store or yard sale and then covering in cute paper. For #6&7 I am seriously in love this felt flower shop on Etsy. Where is my debit card? #8 make your own pussy willow branches with felt balls, I’m totally going to do something like this in my bedroom.
1. Floral Ottoman from Joss and Main 2. Blue tray from One King Lane 3. photo credit potterybarnkids 4. Penguin Classic Book Collection 5. Faux succulents 6. & 7. flowers and succulents from the Felt Flower Shop 8. felt ball branch d.i.y 9.mini painted globe

(Since working on this post I have had an intense desire all day to make cucumber sandwiches for dinner. I’m not sure how My hubby Juice or little O.J. would take it but these were so delicious, I might just be willing to risk their disappointment.)

Truly Scrumptious plates

For the decorations we gathered up miss-matched tea sets from friends, family, and a few stops at the thrift shop. We then pulled an old collection of books from her bookshelves, covered them with craft paper, and added a little lace and ribbon as part of each table centerpiece. About a week before the event Star planted pretty little flowers in a handful of the extra tea cups and had them ready to go the day of the event. To finish off the centerpieces we added large goblets, hot water, and tea flowers.

I also used one of my favorite tricks; micro flower arrangements. We used 2 dozen roses and a “garden bunch” to create 12 mini flower arrangements in gorgeous champagne glitter votive holders. There were flowers everywhere but we didn’t spend a fortune.

All the tables were covered in white linens and then layered with different crocheted tablecloths and mismatched doilies.

Star’s big back yard was the perfect space to add in giant lavender and mint balloons strung with lace.

We strung a large glitter “All You Need Is Love” banner across the front of her Pergola along with an eclectic butterfly garland.

and added delightful little paper butterfly cake toppers to all of the flower arrangements.

my balloon guy, John with Balloon Architects

Butterfly Caketoppers from Kiwitinicreations on Etsy

Champagne Glitter Votive Holder as a mini vase from SweetHeartsStudios on Etsy

Free to Fly Butterfly Garland from Julamade on Etsy and All You Need is Love Banner from ThreeLeafPaperie on Etsy

The ice tea bar was the perfect solution to having a tea party on a HOT spring day. Darling paper straws and delicately hued lavender and mint sugar cubes were the sweetest addition to a fabulous, ice cold, glass of tea.

Iced Tea Bar

Colored Sugar Cubes from TrioArtisanDesigns on Etsy

The Perfect Tea Party Paper Straw Combo from Twigsandtwirlsllc on Etsy

For the favors we filled pretty little paper bags with cookies for later and finished them off with hand stamped “thank you” doilies.

Cookie for Later Favor with these Hand Stamped Doilies from OhJoyGypsy on Etsy and these Favor Bags from theStationeryRoom on Etsy

It has been 24 years since the last girl was born into the Dawson family. Needless to say, us girls are seriously outnumbered. So it’s no surprise that all of us ladies were more than a little giddy when we found out our Niece Jessica is expecting a girl. And especially thrilled to throw her a baby shower.

This Hello sign is from HelloHeidiWallArt, Which I usually have hanging in my kitchen but loved the idea of Hello Baby so I used it for this fun shower along with a d.i.y. floral BABY sign. I just cut out the front of these paper mache/ cardboard letters , painted them black, and then filled in each letter with an assortment of pink silk flowers and a little hot glue.

Using a hand or stand mixer, beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until fluffy, fold in truwhip. Cut fruit into bite sized pieces. Spread a large dollup of the topping on the cookie and decorate with fruit.

If the last time you had sherbet punch was 1992 like me, you need to make some and be quick about it. It was even better than I remembered.

I decided to do pink nail polish as the favor, but about choked when I saw how expensive most nail polish is. Luckily I shopped around and found just what I was looking for at Walgreens. How cute are all these different shades of pink?! I just added a cute tag and a little bow.

Here are a few more pictures of the invites and address labels. I did bleep out my actual address, if you want to leave me love note, you can always leave me a comment.

“She leaves a little sparkle wherever she goes.”

-Kate Spade

I thought it was the perfect quote for all little girls, and big ones for that matter, to remember to sparkle.

One of my favorite things during the shower was the realization that almost every single gift was wrapped in coordination with the theme; pink, polka dots, & stripes. It was definitely a sight to behold. It made me smile knowing the invitations totally conveyed the theme enough that all of these ladies go it and just ran with it.

I am also dying over these amazing pictures my awesome nephew Alec took at the shower. It was a huge stress relief to have his help. I am totally blown away by his talent and really excited to see what he does with it.